Here again, Luke tells us a story about a woman afflicted for 18 years with a spirit that left her crippled and bent over. It is a very powerful story told as it does the unbidden grace of God coming upon a person- a woman- and setting her free to walk upright and to praise God. Such is a story of miracle freely given upon one in need in the midst of the worship of the living God- the Sabbath- There Jesus called the bent woman, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

The healing of the woman crippled for 18 years caused yet another confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities. A leader of the Synagogue, a layman challenged Jesus about the rule of the Sabbath, where it is forbidden to do any works for it is dedicated to worshipping God alone.

Jesus lashed out in condemnation of such hypocrisy! He drew a comparison between compassion he just have shown for the woman, and the perfectly normal care the man would give to his animal. In the end, the woman left triumphantly to celebrate her new freedom from pain and disability of 18 years and now able to visit friends and enjoy life just as the rest do.

This story of the crippled and bent over is certainly our story. Who is here among us who does not have pain and anxiety? Who is here that does not carry a heavy burden and not doing well with it at all? The woman was oppressed by a social system that devalues her, by a system that sees her as more or less of no account, much as today’s system that sees us as less value, sees us as consumers, as numbers to be valued only by our power to purchase commodities and to be ignored when it sees that we will return less to the bottom line than we take from it, if it seems we will be a drain on the health system, a drain on the economy, a drain on the family.

We certainly identify ourselves with this woman when our workplace tries to get rid of us because they cannot use us much as they would because of our disabilities.

We identify ourselves with this woman with herself doubt, a spirit that convinces her that she has no strength, no ability, no purpose, even though she is a child of Abraham, even though she is one of God’s chosen ones.

We identify ourselves with this woman when there was a time when we feel like we were outcast by the very family that we love and grew up with, just because we have a different vision in life. We become nobody for them and would rather have us vanished from their sight.

But Jesus, amidst the busy place, sees this woman and had compassion on her. In the midst of his teaching, he calls her to come to him. She would have been easy to overlook and missed. Looking at the crowd in the synagogue that day, Jesus, like the rest, could have seen this bent over woman as simply someone needing a health professional. Or, like some today, he could have seen her as victim of an unjust society, as one more casualty whose presence informs us of the need for change in our social order, as simply one more person who needs to be set free from the disease and disorder that is present in our world. How surprised she must have been to have been called forward by Jesus to come to his presence that he may touch and heal her saying, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

That is for us too! That is what so many of us need! The word of Jesus addressed to us. The touch and voice of Jesus heal us when he says, “My child, you are set free from your ailment, from your pain, from your worries, from your anxieties, from your burdens”

Think of the joy that flooded the joy of this healed woman. She went praising God and thanking Him. She went about telling her friends and is once again being able to do the things just anybody can do.

Jesus must have smiled as he watched her go triumphantly of her freedom from pain and disability.

I need to feel that same feeling Jesus had by helping others feel they are loved and cared for. I need to show the same compassion to every child of God I meet. I need to feel again and again that wonderful feeling when a homeless gets up from the cardboard he is sleeping and say, “Thank you, God bless you” when I hand that bag of food our volunteers prepared for them. Would you do the same?

How many of us work in the medical field? Think about what happens to your patient when you don’t tend to their needs? What happens when they get wet and soaked in bed, when they are in pain, whey they needed to walk to regain strength, when, just by sitting for two hours being unmoved or repositioned, will develop a skin breakdown and eventually become pressure ulcer that leads to infection and amputation or even death. Think if we all leave them alone on a sabbath day? Think about the families who are grieving of their loved ones in a hospital bed. Just for us to be there quietly and prayerfully with them, listen to their cries and that we are just there as a shoulder to lean on.

Think about the person who has been suffering from arthritis or parkinson’s whose hands and fingers cannot even lift a spoon or hold a glass of water to drink because of a crippling condition. Think about their frustrations.

Think about those who are living in the streets without shelter and food. Those without insurance and no doctors for a check up? Those elders at home who are isolated and depressed, those children who are mentally incapacitated.

How many teachers do we have here? Teachers who have seen the desperate needs of parents to send their kids for better future, students who come to school depressed and with new bruises and signs of maltreatment or being bullied.

How many of us are unemployed for months and years and are on the edge of losing their hopes? How many of us are desperate to let go of that crippling economic situation and trying to move on for another chapter of life and wanting to set free.

How many of us are still victims of that looming aged of racial discrimination when it comes to employment, Health needs, Security and the like. If Martin Luther King Jr. is still alive today, he would say, “I didn’t die and live to see these diseases of social discrimination still loom around.”

Isn’t these our story? We need to be set free from these. All of us need to be set free. Each of us need that calling of Christ and be set free from our ailment. I believe that happens if we only listen to his calling and trust on his loving embrace. Let us all be enveloped by God’s compassion and mercy.

Jesus sees us, he discerns who we are and the spirit that are in us, and unbidden he calls to us, just as he called to the bent over woman. He reaches out to us and seeks to set us free. Jesus is calling to us with a stretch hands. We need to recognize him in our midst and accept what he has to offer us. Jesus sees us in our needs. He know what oppresses us. He is here to set us free. He may be in the person next to you. He may be the next person whom you see on the street corner or in the supermarket. Look and believe, listen and be set free. His word and his touch still drive out the spirits that oppress, and allow those who respond to his call to stand straight once again and praise God’s name.

Amidst our sorrow for the loss of two of our members this week: our Senior Warden James Adams and Andronico Gumtang, there is a reason for us to celebrate and be thankful, for God is with us whatever pain there may be.

There is another reason for us to celebrate for a child in our midst, Kenzonton Xavier Torres, will be baptized and bring a new life in his family and this community. let all our smile out and spread to the person next to you.

Let us therefore thank God for all the blessing he has given us by being thankful and pray without ceasing. Amen.

First of all, I would like to thank you all for supporting The Rev. Dr. Lynn Bowdish, Fr. Jay Watan and Fr. Jurek Fernandez during my absence.

Secondly, I would like to thank you all for allowing me to have a quality time with my family. There are things that money can’t buy, one of them is family, the other, happiness.

It is proven that family is the basic unit of a society. It is the building block of a community. family is the community in which children learn morality, faith, and ordered freedom, all of which are necessary for a free and flourishing culture. The family is, in other words, the primary educator of the community: the parents or guardians are and have the responsibility to be the primary teachers of their children. The Church is tasked with handing the faith of the Apostles but it is the parents who do this first, with the Church acting as aide in this regard.

The responsibilities of parents towards their children, and society as a whole, is to teach their children proper morals and inculcate what virtues they may, to teach their children how best to live in harmony with others, and how to live in full control of themselves.

Jesus in the Gospel gave us a disturbing challenge about what might happen to families and communities. It sounded like a curse and is very troubling. But what he said has always been the disease of a family from time immemorial, even the beginning of life when Adam and Eve accused each other on whose fault it was that they created the first sin. Cain slaughtered his brother Abel and down the history even at Jesus time, where he was disregarded by the jews as an outcast, not a member of their family and caused pain in him, even crucified him.

But Jesus is resolved to continue to build God’s family based on Compassion, Love and Mercy. He warned his disciples and those who followed him about the imminent danger that might happen to their family when they come to follow him and spread the kingdom of God. There is a sense of urgency in the words of Jesus Christ.
For, with this Jesus, life is never business as usual. There is nothing usual about healing the blind, feeding the hungry, and healing the sick. There is nothing usual about forgiveness, in which anxious sinners like us get precisely what we do not deserve, the mercy, love and communion of God. There is nothing usual about a God who will be baptized into our deaths and immersed in our pain and desperation so that we may know a present and eternal peace from which we will not be taken. There is nothing usual about a God who is willing to suffer death so that we may know the resurrection of our bodies. Yes, this is disturbing, even terrifying news, because there is nothing more terrifying than the freedom to let go of our preconceived notions about how the world works and our need to control that world. It is terrifying enough to cause division amongst the most stable social unit in Jesus’ time, the family. So radical is this message of love and mercy that the world’s only place to put it was on a cross outside the city gates. So unusual is this news, this mercy, peace and pardon, that we ourselves would be unable to bear it, if not for God’s Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of faith, and like a cleansing fire, casts out our guilt and fear and brings us to the foot of the cross where we are apprehended a new by the love of Christ.

This, however, is our calling, not to ignore our fears and the realities that create them but rather face the world as it stands. It is a calling to know that God is present and active in the midst of the world, transforming us and it, and bringing us ever closer to God and the whole human family; and it is God’s promise to be with us in our pain and fear that allows us to let go of our need to control, if only a little bit. It is our calling to know that our truest identities, that is, who we really are, does not depend on the cruel indifference we so frequently encounter. Instead, who we are is rooted in the God who meets us at the cross, where our sense of control is finally and ultimately put to death, so that we may be raised anew in the mercy and communion of God. And as Jesus reminds us in today’s Gospel, God’s time is always now. And because God’s time is always in the present, we are given the freedom to take this good, if strange news, with us into the world. We are now free to speak and enact a word of hope and comfort to a world where despair and pain seem to be the only certainties. We are free to offer forgiveness to our enemies and comfort to our loved ones. We are free to invite our neighbors, both near and far, into this strange, unusual, but unspeakably wonderful thing we call Christian discipleship. Because God’s time is always in the present, we need not look to the past to find God’s faithfulness, though there are surely enough instances of past faithfulness to build a convincing case. Instead, God is calling us to a future, and what that future may be, no one can say with certainty, but I think we can expect to be surprised. For that is just how things seem to go in God’s time.

What we mostly need now is love of family. In the words of the Psalm, “How good and pleasant it is for God’s people to dwell together in Unity, for there God commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.”

I have seen that love and unity in the family of Jim and Mariterie Adams, who had to travel from far different places to bring their loving support to Jim and Mariterie.

I have seen that love and unity in the family of Andronico Gumtang and the Lagunte families, who, amidst their greatest grief, they are united and supportive to each other.

I have seen that love and unity among the Dayrit and Pailano families and many others.
To some of us, we struggle but we always have the hope for God is with us always whatever it takes.

You see, Life, however short it may be, is like a jar with rocks, pebbles and sand on it. The rocks are the important things – your family, your spouse, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter – like your job, your house, your security, your car.
The sand is everything else, the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Things that money can’t but buy, such as quality time with your family.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children and grand children. Take your spouse, parents, family or friend out for a date. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party, or do gardening.”

“Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

Let us all keep the basic unit of our lives, our family, for to each other, we grow in strength and love on our journey to meet God face to face. Amen.

Shelter and Homeless feeding

EVERY 3RD SUNDAY OF THE MONTH
We need volunteer cooks and servers for Safe Harbor Shelter. Make it your thanksgiving offering for all the blessing received; For it is also in giving that we receive.
We welcome donations for food purchases.
Call Rev. Rebecca Goldberg at 650-291-5289. Or call the Church phone at 650-991-1560, or simpy click the donation link.
EVERY FRIDAY AT 6 PM, Peninsula Food Runners pick up at Genentech and drop off at Safe Harbor Shelter in North Access Road SSF. (Need volunteers. Please see Fr. Leonard)

Health and Wellness Center

Our Health and Wellness Clinic opens on Sundays at 1 PM to 3 PM, and Mondays at 7:30 am to 10 AM.
We provide the following:
1. Free Blood Pressure, Heart rate, Lung and Weight assessments and monitoring.
2. We refer those with no insurance , unemployed and low income individuals to health professionals and health partners for follow up and assistance.
3. We provide Free health education, nutrition and physical exercises. Every Last Sunday of the month from 1 PM to 2 PM, Medical Doctors and other health educators are invited for a forum on specific issues.
4. Arthritis exercises are offered every Monday at 8:30 AM to 9 AM with Dr. Ronald Mitchell, Chiropractor.
5. We are partners with ALLICE Alliance against Domestic Violence.
6. We provide spiritual assistance to complete our goal for Body, Mind and Spirit.
Contact us at 650-991-1560